A friend of mine did a smart thing today. He quit freelancing above his full-time job. He just quit. I think he may have learned a lesson from me. Seeing me burying myself with work possibly made him realize that making this extra money above and beyond really doesn’t do a lot for you if you have no time left to enjoy it.
I think it was a really smart thing. I am thinking about going the same way. He still will be focusing on his own projects…when he has the time. Thats the key, do things at your pace. Your clients don’t know what you have on your plate and they never will. It’s not your job to educate them that you are busy. It’s your job to either push them on to other capable people and turn down the work or to intelligently take it on yourself and give them realistic deadlines.
I have not done that. I just take it on and take it on until red lights appear everywhere that I need to stop. I think my Dad does the same thing and I have seen it my whole childhood. So, I need to be smart about freelancing. I need to fight this thing in me that says, go ahead, take another project, volunteer for this, do this work for free, help out with this.
When I was a kid, I enjoyed life and each day with wide-open eyes. I loved what I did for fun and I had passion. Well, I haven’t changed much. I still love what I do and I approach the world with passion and a commitment to excellence. However, one thorn in my side keeps me from retaining that child-like view of the world. Work. I work too much and this has got to change.
Yeah, work is bad. Bad Bad Bad! Who needs it? Let’s go live on a beach somewhere and beat up monkeys for their money.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. I sometimes think this statement is flawed, maybe moreso with today’s society of “must have this must have that RIGHT NOW” attitudes. When life gives you lemons you should just squeeze and enjoy them or just smell the sweet citrucy aroma they exude, but no we have to buy the sugar to sweeten it, and buy the glasses to put it in.. oh wait and then.. why not make people buy it from you for a price? Why does life always have to be all about the “more”. Why aren;t we just content with the lemons and being creative with ONLY the lemons? I say this with thought.. for Lord knows ive once been that lemonade stand gal. Not even sure if this has anything to do with freelance work at all.. or even the topic at hand.. but its been something ive noticed in my years of working and watching the public. Why are we always keeping up with the jones’? and dag nab it.. WHO THE HECK ARE THEY? Perhaps these so called jones’ should become the person that greets us everyday in the mirror.
Awesome advice from the both of you. I personally like the “beating up monkeys” option Daniel. Bravo. As always choice words from you buddy.
Erin, you are right on. I think that this whole keeping up with the jones mentality has wreaked havoc on our nation. For instance, look at our fast food restaurants. We pushed it and pushed it to make the food so fast to keep up with our ever-busy lives, that it has become unhealthy. Now, we are realizing this and McDonalds is offering salads and more healthy options.
I think the same is true of our lives. We try to keep up and push and push and push until we realize that what we needed was what we already had.
It’s cliche, but money really can’t buy happiness. I think you’re gifted with teh l337 design skilloz. You should never stop using your talent. However, don’t kill yourself and overload yourself; attend to your own needs too.
Typical, good advice from the best friend. Gosh.
Amen brotha. That’s partially why Godbit.com was started, to alleviate the many code / tech-support emails and work requests that I didn’t have time to handle. I’ve realized that it’s more fun to work on a project for a friend, for free, than kill myself trying to take on tons of demanding clients.
Timely post. I just started freelancing this year over and above my day job. Mostly I’m doing it for a creative outlet since my day job has become a lot more technical. Seems like I’ve got work coming from all directions and my natural tendency is to say yes to everyone. But I’ve got to reign it in and be more choosy about the things I take on.
I had the overloaded problem when I first started freelancing in addition to full time work, but then I made a deal with myself that I would never work on weekends (starting Friday evening). This allows me to have plenty of free time to do what I please, while still making that extra cash. It also makes the weekends that much more enjoyable.
Extra money may not buy happiness, but it sure can send you on some good vacations.
Zach, good point. I definitely don’t want to stop freelancing, but I need to ask myself, when is too much? I seem to have an issue with balance. Rather than just removing myself from the “extra work” world, I think it will do me much better to balance myself.
As I sit at my desk this Memorial day, procrastinating about starting a freelance project, I find myself ready to give up free-lancing also.
For years, I’ve made an extra 5-10 k / year gross doing freelance projects, however this is money that usually comes with quite a bit of heart-burn and is damn little actual money for all the work. Let me explain.
Usually, I schedule free lance jobs to give me a flexible schedule and my clients claim they understand that I have a normal job and that a protracted time table is fine. But, somehow they always end up turning the tables and wanting/needing things done on a faster time line than originally discussed. Then I end up working on vacations and weekends trying to please them. (And let
thursty_thurst,
Well put. Will you be able to drop the clients when the money looks good? What if you are in a pinch and you really need it? Do you think that maybe freelancing is not the issue, but maybe the way you do it? I’m not trying to encourage you to stay in it, because I think you know exactly what you are doing and you don’t need the extra headache. It’d be good if you could drop it.
For me, I think ultimately, freelancing is an indicator of something missing. Somthing is missing: money, creativity, position, etc. I think especially for me, the fact that I do freelance work tells something about myself and the job I work.
With each passing freelance job I do, I come closer and closer to the same realization. I think I’d prefer to create my own web application and sell it. We’ll see how that goes ;)
Freelancing u live between heaven and hell. difficult to have a middle term if you are 100% freelancing…
For a contract job you can maybe plan some more things but you depend from one person, one company that could just say – no need for your services.
I prefer to take the risk myself and be able to grab take incredible project that one day will be propose and i will have the time to do it….
Most off all, i´m happier controling my time, my business, doing what i like …. i love that.